Searching for a Cave …

About twenty years ago, an interesting new bird began showing up along the east coast of North America.

When CAVE SWALLOWS first showed up around 1990, it was thought to be a one-time odd occurrence. Well, history has proven otherwise.

Instead, we have a continuing development of a whole new migration and distribution pattern developing before our collective eyes.

The CAVE SWALLOW is a bird with two distinct populations. It is of the southwest desert country and Caribbean Islands. It resembles our own Cliff Swallow, but has a a darker face and rump and a distinctive light band around the neck, giving it a dark crowned look.

As the name suggests, they nest and roost in caves. When caves are not available, the now-a-day Cave Swallows will use bridges and some building porches instead.

In the ensuing twenty years, a whole new pattern of late season “migration” began to develop. Instead of flying south for the winter, as one might expect, the birds began showing up in Ontario, New England, New York, and New Jersey!

At first, it was only a few that would be found each year, usually in November. Since then, its grown to hundreds from various locations. They tended to appear after a storm pattern that swept up from the southwest, then – east then south, to follow the shorelines of large water bodies – like Lake Ontario and the Atlantic Ocean .

With my quest to see as many of the bird species that have occurred in New York, I’ve been especially interested in seeing one of these unusual visitors. The problem is that they move through quickly, and you have to be where they are at the time. That would be November, somewhere along Lake Ontario, or the south shore of Long Island.

So, as many times as I could, I visited those favored locales in November in hopes of coming across one or more Cave Swallows. No luck.

This year was no exception. Earlier this month I went to Hamlin Beach State Park in Monroe County and searched various places along the shore. No luck.

Over the Thanksgiving weekend, I visited family on Staten Island, New York’s southernmost county, and took a few moments (well hours) between family get-togethers to check out the south shore with hopes of finding a Cave Swallow. As far as I knew, there weren’t any records of them ever seen on the island, but following a hunch, I had to try. Besides, I didn’t have the luxury of getting around to a better spot.

I spent a chilly Thanksgiving Day morning and then a chilly Friday morning sitting in a lawn chair on the beach of Great Kills Park. No luck. I saw great birds while there, such as some close-in views of Northern Gannets, scoters, and Red-throated Loons. But no swallows.

In a last ditch effort, I looked over the map and figured I’d try positioning in an area with a more direct line between the Long Island shore and Sandy Hook, New Jersey – known sites for Cave Swallow passages.

So I went down to Princess Bay. Years ago, I used to hike along the shore. Mt. Loretto was there as a working farm and an orphanage and being so, was off limits to outsiders like me. Now its a marvelous state “unique area” and open to the public.

It worked. I saw one swallow, which at first, I blew off as just another late-season Tree Swallow. Fortunately, I looked a little closer. It wasn’t. It was a Cave Swallow – my first for New York State.

Cave Swallows eat insects. Looking around, there didn’t look like there were any bugs flying around. But judging from the bird’s behavior, it seemed to be finding some as it swooped and swerved in its aerial pursuits.

So for the next hour or so, I tried to get a decent picture of the bird. No easy task. More often than not, it was going by so fast that it would be out of focus or out of the frame before I could snap a photo.

But I got a few pictures. None of them was any good – no National Geo photos here. But this is the best of the bunch:

Cave Swallow – a rare Tex-Mex visitor to New York

Let’s hope that he or she can find enough food to build up the energy needed to find its way home.